New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-06
HANDLING LOCAL TR1TEL.

W hon the managers OF New oTk trans
por;atiOn companies, Whether elevated railroads
or surface car lines, discuss the handling of
local travel their estimates and calculations
appear always to exclude all consideration Of
the due fulflment Of their contract with the
public. in every such case the ability Of the
transportation agents to move the travel If
prcdcated upon their right to pack the cars as
full as they will hold. II is perfectly certain
that if 1t was obligatory upon the corporations
10 provide seat for every passenger they took
OF, they could not begin TO carry the crowds
demanding transportation daily, and in the
busiest hours, at morning and evening they
would have to double or treble the service 10
got the work done This fact has hitherto
been employed TO justify tho crowding of all
public conveyances, hut those who uso it arc
careful to keep out of sight the other fact that
in crowding the cars the corporations contn-
ually violate their contract with the public by
failing to provide the accommodation for which
they arc paid The public. it is true condone
this breach Of contract. but simply iccausc they
must DC carried, ard because rather than not
ae carried they will submit to great discom-
fort That an abuse Is submitted TO- however.
renders it none the .css an abuse
The general prctext that it is necessary to
crowd the convcyanccs in order TO cary the
.r.vel involves unloading assumption. The
truth is that the crowding is only made unavoid-
lble by the defects Of the transportation scr
vice. SO long as the pubic arc careless OF
their own rights and the abuses practiscd upon
them, The corporations VIII naturally make no
effort TO improve the service. SO long as the
public are content TO he packed like hcrrlng1
in barrel In strcct-cars, stages and elevated
railroad cars, they will have unlimited oppor-
tunity 70 exercise their patience. But nothing
is in itself more essentially absurd than the
allegation that the eMgcncies OF transportation
make necessary this crowding A clear demon
straton of this consists in the fact that in
London. Paris Berlin and Vienna no such
crowding is permitted. There. every public con-
vcyance must carry pacaid to be put out the
moment its seating accommodation Is OK
hausted. After that not another passenger is
admitted. In London there has Of late been
some complaint of crowding on the under
ground railway, but complaint there Is apt to
taing reform, a fact which no doubt 1T is dill
cult for New Workers to realize or comprehend.
On the continent of Europe the problem is
solved by increasing the service, and that Is
beginning at the right end. The theory in
tkcsc efTete old countries is that the public
have scmc rights, and that corporations are
bound to furnish the accommodations they are
paid for.
Those eccentric people will 1ot admitthat being
carried hanging to strap, squeezed In among
fifty or sixty distressed and pcrspiring citizens.
fulfils the obligation into which a tIansporta-
lion company enters. They pretend that every
passenger is entitled 10 scat and they com
pcl tho companies to provide it. OF course
many more cars have TO he employed to do the
transportation Sut that, ii is held, is the affair
of the carriers and not Of the public Nor are
the latter allowed by haste or sclfishness TO
suol the comfort of their fellows. 1t is no
more permitted TO them to crowd into n full car
than it is to the company TO take them in. The
general result is that one travels in comfort
in those backward, fossilizcd old countries, and
as the service is fuller there is no los of time
Here, of course fuller service would bc at once
required if every passenger bad scat, and as
| il Is much more economical TO squeeze three
car loads of passengers into every car, and al
the passengers submit TO the imposition with
slcep-Ike docility, ii is done Systematically
Nevertheless if New York should ever care TO
Insist upon her common law rights in the prem
,ses. she could compel her carriers TO fulfil their
contract. and the moment she ret about COM
rclling this performance of duty il would be
found that there never was any real difficulty
about the matter; that it was simply a question
of making O large profit at the expense oil .